The trend is increasingly popular after several companies have suffered from a recent wave in corporate scandals and increased fraud levels, prompting firms to set up an independent and objective audit system, according to the Economic Times.

Both SMEs and large firms are following suit in outsourcing audit work to external firms. Companies including Airtel, Dabur, Nicholas Piramal, the National Stock Exchange, Hindalco, Vodafone, Pfizer and MphasiS are all adopting the approach.

Many companies have also even converted internal audit into a continuous activity, instead of the current practice of doing it for the quarterly or half-yearly financial statements.

"The independence and objectivity that an external agency has, is difficult for an audit team consisting of existing employees; therefore an external audit firm would bring in best practices that probably wouldn't be there in an internal audit team." said Porus Doctor from Deloitte.